Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-03-17
TN THE RAGING TORRENT
Particulars of the Accident Saturday
Night on the Iron Mountain
Railroad.
The Trestle Over Joachim Creek Gives
Way, Several Coaches Going
Into the Water.
A special from st. Louis, Mo-, of Sun

A special from st. Louis, Mo-, of Sun
day, says:
The railroad accident on the Iron
Mountain railway, near Desoto, Mo-, which
was briefly referred to late last night,
while not being at all unusual in regard
to fatal casualties, proves to have been
quite remarkable in respect to several
circumstances which attended it. 1t &C.
Cured at Victoria, thirty miles south of
here, a little after 10 o'clock, and was oc-
casioned by the giving way under the
train of the trestle which crosses Joachim
creek at that point. The train was the
Texas express, and consisted Of baggage,
express and mail cars, a smoker, two pas
senger and four sleepers, carrying about
100 passengers. A heavy rain had fallen
all day and the creek was much swollen.
At Hematite, the first station this side of
the trestle, the engineer received orders
to run cautiously, as the rain had been
heavy and the creek was out of its banks.
Engineer Kelly says he ran slowly beyond
that point, aud both he and his fireman,
William Hatch, watched the track very
carefully. AS he approached the trestle
Kelly observed that the track was entire
ly straight and level, showing nothing
wrong, and he went on without the slight
est fear or hesitation, but when his en-
CINE reached about the middle of the
trestle, he felt the whole structure sinking
beneath him. In an instant he opened
the valve operating the air brakes full
width, and brought the train to SO quick
stop that the front end of one of the
cars was crushed in by the sudden shock.
This saved the coaches, but the baggage,
mail, express and smoking cars went into
the raging torrent below, carrying with
them all the men on board. Engineer
Kelly and fireman Hatch
WENT DOWN WITH THE ENGINE.
and were submerged in the flood. Kelly
in his struggles to free himself, found
one of his feet was held fast, but at the
same instant, and just as he realized that
he must drown, the engine turned over,
his foot released, and he came TO the
surface. Selling passing log he chung
to it desperately, and was swept down
the torrent and lodged against tree $50
yards below. With scarcely strength
enough to move, he closed his legs and
arms around the limb of the tree, became
unconscious, and was not restored until
two or three hours afterward, when he
found himself kindly cared for in q
house in Victoria. His face and heas
was severely cut, two or his toes cut from
one of his feet, and he is badly bruised
in various parts of his body. He will re
cover.
FREEMAN Hach was carried about 5OC
yards down the stream, lodged in a mass
of brush or drift, and was rescued soon
after the flood subsidized. He is good
deal bruised, but not seriously hart. The
postal was swept away some distance,
and as the water rushed through it from
end TO end, the mail was literally washed
out, and is now scattered over miles OF
the territory or imbedded in the mud OF
the creek. 1t is regarded as an almost
total loss, and the whole of it being com
pletely soaked, and addresses of the let
tiers being obliterated. The postal clerks
Mccullough, Shaffer, and Ryan-were bad
ly bruised and almost drowned, and be
ing stripped for work, they lost all theil
clothes, their gold watches, and abol
$3.50 in money, which was carried away
by the food.
The smoker, which is said to have con
tanned some twenty persons, was swept
down about three hundred feet below the
treste and all of its occupents are be-
heved to have been saved. They succeed
ed IN getting outside Of the car and chung
to its top until they were rescued. There
is some doubt as to the baggageman and
express messenger being saved, but q
late lspatch from the wreck says that
none of the tIainmen were lost. AS stat
ed last night, a special train was sent
from here between II and 1 o'clock, con
yeying physicians and medical supplies
The train returned this afternoon anc
brought number of passengers ano
trainmen, who did not care to wait a,
the wreck until the trestle was repaired
As soon as the water subsidized sufficiently
large gang of men was put to work anC
and new crossing was finished this af-
ternoon, and trains are running regular
ly. The cause of the unprecedented
flood is believed to have bsen cloud
burst which took place late in the eve
ming and filled the creek Which runs be-
tween rugged hills for miles, so full that
1t became raging torrent with current
of over twenty miles per hour, and sweeps
everything before it.
Lesson in Patriotism
In the cha of ssrNba Fairport Min a.